Lucy didn’t want homemade valentines for school so, she picked valentines from the store – My Little Pony for the girls and Sports for the boys. She wrote them out and attached a mini-Twix to each, because Twix is her favorite and the important thing about all this is that she did it all by herself, MOM.

Both girls made valentine kabobs to share with their classmates.

And, since Dave is working on Valentine’s Day, I made brownies for him to take along and share with his coworkers.

Feb

10

I tried two new recipes in the past week and they were BOTH big hits! This rarely happens. I am a minimally skilled cook on a minimal budget, preparing meals for four kids, two parents, and one “basic” husband. Ordinarily there’s someone who isn’t jazzed about what I’m putting on the table. But conditions were perfect. The recipes were for the crock pot – my wheelhouse. I’m really quite good at throwing ingredients together and walking away until they become a meal. I had most of the ingredients on hand already. My regular dinner rotation was getting tired and we were short on snack food. Everyone was pretty hungry for something new come dinnertime.

Jan

24

(We made these on Thursday from a paper egg carton. All our goggles started to rip a bit in the center, so I reinforced them with a brad fastener. If you’re in need of a pair yourself, I think a foam egg carton might make sturdier goggles.)